Annual Budget Coutdown-update

If you remember, many posts ago, I told you about my personal challenge to keep our annual grocery budget to $5000.00 this year. This equates to about $96.00 per week to cover all food (not including dining out), personal hygiene, cleaning products, and OTC meds.

Last Sunday's Kroger trip was my first bite into the budget. With a ziplock full of coupons and the determination of a ??? (what's something that is known for it's determination, anyways...) to not stray from "the list," I felt confident that I would be off to a great start. So you can imagine my surprise when my grocery bill rang up to $123.04. $123.94- It was just week one and I was already $27.94 behind schedule!

I studied my receipt all the way home to see where I went wrong. (husband driving- not me) I discovered that I was not awarded my $5 discount for buying $25 worth of Proctor and Gamble products, and I had purposely bought some items just to get me to that amount; specifically: the bounty paper towels- 8 roll pack $6.99, although I do love them, they are a luxury item & the Folgers Gourmet Coffee Blends-$4.99 for a small bag.) Right then and there I decided- They must go back!!!

So the next day I loaded up my two boys in the two-door civic (that detail is important to the story, because you have to be really motivated to go anywhere when it means loading two boys into car seats in a two-door vehicle), swallowed my pride (actually I am way past that, but I know for some of you this would be extremely humiliating), ran across the parking lot in the frigid rain carrying a 15 month old on one hip, and an 8 roll pack of paper towels on the other, while begging my four year old not to drop the coffee or jump in the puddles. Soaking wet we presented our items to customer service.

It was all worth it when the cashier handed me back my $11.77 to go back into the budget. You might think that is where the story ends, but no my dear readers there is more....

You see when I got home and started preparing my weekly meals, I discovered an extra bag of Salmon. You don't know this, but I typically will make a special trip to Walmart to buy my fish because it is significantly cheaper then Kroger. I didn't think I would have time to get to Walmart before I started my marathon of meals so I had just closed my eyes and placed the $9.99 salmon in my basket when I had shopped on Sunday. So you know what I did, don't you? I made a second trip back to Kroger and returned that fish, for a refund of $11.57!


So I am very happy to report: $ Spent to date: $99.70 $Saved: $86.13 (found on Kroger receipt) $ Left: $4900.30 with 51 weeks to go!